Ethical Debate: Evolution, the big easy, and putting your money where your mouth is

Posted on By David Shiffman 26 Comments on Ethical Debate: Evolution, the big easy, and putting your money where your mouth is
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One of my favorite parts of being a scientist is attending conferences. In addition to getting feedback on your research from leaders in your field and staying current on other people’s work, conferences are a lot of fun. When the daily sessions end, it’s basically a bunch of cool people who share your interests looking to have a good time after a long day. While most people (including myself) care more about the knowledge transfer than the celebrations (exhibit A- I’m going to a conference in Minnesota next summer) , I’ve known more than a few people who have chosen not to go to certain conferences because the host city was “boring”. This makes it all the more surprising that the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB), one of the largest scientific societies in the United States, announced that their 2011 conference would be held in Salt Lake City and not New Orleans (as had originally been proposed).

Guess which city this celebration took place in? Image from NowPublic.com

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The Way We Heal – the biology of scar formation

Posted on By Andrew Thaler 4 Comments on The Way We Heal – the biology of scar formation
Science

Humans, we are fragile creatures. We bend and break and tear. Lacking a rigid exoskeleton, dense armored plates, calcium carbonate shells, our skin becomes our first line of defense against a hostile, machete-filled world. Fortunately, while we do break, we can also heal ourselves through a wonderfully complex system of self-repair.

As stated earlier, this is not a medical blog and we have limited experience discussing medicine. For more detailed and experienced medical blogging, please check out two of my favorite medical blogs, Science-based Medicine and White Coat Underground. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be liveblogging my body’s own healing process as I recover from a machete blow to the head.

The physiology of wound healing and scar formation in the human body is a complicated and fascinating.

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Finding Melville’s Whale – Enter Ahab; to him, Stubb (Chapter 29)

Posted on By Andrew Thaler
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Chapter 29 of Herman Melville’s classic – Moby Dick. Read along with us and discuss this chapter or the book as a whole in the comments. Visit this page for the complete collection to date: Finding Melville’s Whale. Enter Ahab; to him, Stubb Greybeards – for those who walk the deck at night, the sky is … Read More “Finding Melville’s Whale – Enter Ahab; to him, Stubb (Chapter 29)” »

Watch me heal, day 1 – 4

Posted on By Andrew Thaler 11 Comments on Watch me heal, day 1 – 4
Science

Those of you following me on twitter have probably heard that I had a little accident this weekend. And by “little accident”, I mean I got hit in the head with a machete. And by “got hit in the head” I really mean hit myself in the head while clearing brush. This has afforded me two opportunities: the first was the chance to see my own skull (how often does that happen?) and the second was the chance to document the healing process.

We don’t do a lot of medical blogging, primarily because we’re not in a medical field. There are excellent resources out there if you’re interested in medical blogging – Science-based Medicine and White Coat Underground are my favorite.

Below the fold are some rather tame pictures (but perhaps disturbing if you don’t like a little gore) of my head, post stitches. Sadly I was not in the right mindset to get a good picture of the injury before repair.

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